This invention relates to dispensing liquids to human eyes.
Human eyes frequently need to have a medicine, water, or a buffered fluid administered to them. For example, lubricating fluid is needed when an eye is covered by a contact lens for an extended time; and medicinal solutions are required for treatment of infections or diseases, such as glaucoma. It is also necessary to irrigate eyes with a saline solution when they have been contacted with a harmful agent. For example, in some laboratory accidents, an acid or alkali may splash into an eye, and must immediately be diluted and washed away.
German patent 3,035,211 describes an instrument for dispensing an irrigating solution to an eye. The instrument is preferably held on a flat surface with the person leaning over it. Irrigating solution is caused to enter a receptacle in which an eye is positioned, and spent liquid is drained away.
Costello (1970, U.S. Pat. No. 3,506,001) describes a device for spraying an eye with a medicated liquid. This device has a mirror positioned so that the user can line up an eye with the spraying tube.
Strauss (1932, U.S. Pat. No. 1,855,653) describes an eye dropper having a tube extending through a glass bottle containing liquid. A bulb at one end of the tube is squeezed to cause the liquid to be dispensed from the other end.
It is common for people who wear contact lenses or who have ocular diseases to dispense eye drops using a simple plastic bottle having a small hole at one end. In order to get a drop into an eye, the user must tip his head back to bring the surface of the eye to an almost horizontal position.